The cost of gas and electricity for poor people on prepayment meters compared to the cheapest deals for everyone else has shot up FIVE HUNDRED per cent in seven years.

The difference between pay-as-you-go cards that most low-income householders are forced to use and the cheaper direct-debit single-supplier internet deals has risen from £78 to an average of £359 a year.

And the shock increase has happened since energy regulator Ofgem was set up in 1999.

Now the National Housing Federation, which reveals the disturbing rise today, is calling for the watchdog to be scrapped.

Mr Orr has written to Energy minister Malcolm Wicks demanding that Ofgem be replaced by a better body.

Later this month Ofgem will rule on whether the Big Six power companies should be allowed to charge more for the meters used by six million prepay users on an average household income of £16,000 a year.

The People's fuel poverty campaign is working with the energy industry and Government to help cut power bills.